A disc drive is an example of a data storage system that uses magnetic field for writing and reading data. Transducers write information to and read information from data surfaces of the discs. In one example, transducers include a recording or write head for generating a magnetic field that aligns the magnetic moments of a magnetic medium to represent desired bits of data. To ensure that the transducer write head accurately magnetizes the appropriate magnetic cells on magnetic media during write operations, the cells on the media are positioned beneath the write head and synchronized with the passing of the magnetic cells. This synchronization depends not only on the write pole speed but also on how quickly the trailing or front shield can close the flux circuit, establishing the write field gradient in the process.